[{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/aboutme/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Aboutme"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/","section":"Howdy World","summary":"","title":"Howdy World"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m CJ [LinkedIn], a simple fella who enjoys technology and helping people. Today, I do that by supporting the development of certification exams for Amazon Web Services. With 15-plus years in the IT industry, I\u0026rsquo;ve worked at small and large companies, optimized workflows, built solutions, mentored up-and-coming talent, and helped senior leaders.\nI\u0026rsquo;ve reached this point through God\u0026rsquo;s grace, perseverance, luck, and a somewhat unhealthy tendency to blur the lines between work and play. I have experienced many failures and felt inadequate numerous times, and sometimes I still do. Now, I enjoy helping others see that it\u0026rsquo;s okay to fail and to find growth in those moments.\nI\u0026rsquo;m publishing content to keep growing and connecting with people because it\u0026rsquo;s uncomfortable for me. I don\u0026rsquo;t currently have a backlog of drafted articles, but here are a few areas I\u0026rsquo;m considering:\nAppreciating nature: Visiting U.S. National Parks, Iceland, and other travel adventures Upskilling: Connecting advanced technical concepts with individuals from non-technical backgrounds Building confidence: How to explore and build on Amazon Web Services Sharing knowledge: Discussing books I\u0026rsquo;ve read or am reading, both technical and non-technical Do you have questions, want to chat, or think there\u0026rsquo;s something I could write about? Please reach out on LinkedIn!\nCJ\nP.S. Here are some things that may be unique to me or could overlap with your experiences that we can talk about:\nI was raised in a mobile home in rural Kentucky by a single mother who is a disabled veteran. My first paid jobs included sewing sports uniforms, finishing concrete, and helping on nearby farms. I participated in competitive bowling in youth tournaments. To afford it, I worked at a bowling alley, which allowed me to practice for free. I considered becoming a music educator; the tuba was my instrument. My high school allowed me to self-instruct in programming while I repaired computers around the school so that I could compete in coding competitions. This experience led me to contemplate a future in technology. Calligraphy was a hobby in my early years. I enjoy handwriting, so I use a Kindle Scribe now. I struggled in college, which weighed on me for years. A supportive family took me in as their own, helping me grow immensely after college challenges. My first software development job was through a chain of referrals, where I learned on the job. While working in the tech department at Office Depot, someone appreciated how I helped them understand technical concepts and asked me to maintain their computers. Eventually, they referred me to a family friend who was starting a business. ","date":"May 4, 2025","permalink":"/posts/howdy-world/","section":"Posts","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m CJ [\u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\"\u003eLinkedIn\u003c/a\u003e], a simple fella who enjoys technology and helping people. Today, I do that by supporting the development of certification exams for Amazon Web Services. With 15-plus years in the IT industry, I\u0026rsquo;ve worked at small and large companies, optimized workflows, built solutions, mentored up-and-coming talent, and helped senior leaders.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;ve reached this point through God\u0026rsquo;s grace, perseverance, luck, and a somewhat unhealthy tendency to blur the lines between work and play. I have experienced many failures and felt inadequate numerous times, and sometimes I still do. Now, I enjoy helping others see that it\u0026rsquo;s okay to fail and to find growth in those moments.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Howdy, world!"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/posts/","section":"Posts","summary":"","title":"Posts"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Tags"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/aws/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Aws"},{"content":"So, what\u0026rsquo;s this Service Catalog thing? Well, let\u0026rsquo;s visit that before we get into the technical details.\nExample: Restaurants and made to order meals #Ever used a menu at a restaurant? Then, you\u0026rsquo;ve used a Service Catalog, conceptually, before!\nRestaurants have a generalized workflow.\nCustomers are seated Wait-staff takes customers\u0026rsquo; order Wait-staff passes customer order to the Kitchen-staff Kitchen-staff prioritizes and cooks orders Kitchen-staff hands-off customer cooked meal to wait-staff Wait-staff delivers the order to the customer In this generalized workflow, we have both an internal and external use-case for a \u0026ldquo;Service Catalog\u0026rdquo; for the business.\nStep 2: Customer uses a menu to choose their meal # The pain: manually listing all meals for the customer.\nAs part of the wait-staff, good luck not eventually becoming an auctioneer rattling things off quickly if you had to verbally share what meals were available to each table of customers.\nAs the customer, imagine being hungry waiting for a long list! Uh, yeah, I\u0026rsquo;ll go ahead and order desert with my appetizer…\nThe reliever: using a menu with predefined options.\nFinding the bards-tale-method a bit on the inefficient side, the restaurant uses a menu with sections/numbers/names for the customer to order from.\nThe wait-staff is now able to seat more customers and not incur so much upfront-investment with a table, and the customer can peruse a menu in search of exactly what they\u0026rsquo;re looking for!\nAll possible by using a Service Catalog, err, menu!\nStep 4: Kitchen-staff cooks the meal using ingredients # The pain: Cook has to make everything from scratch.\nAs a cook, you\u0026rsquo;re in for a long day of making bespoke but decadent meals!\nAs a customer, you\u0026rsquo;re in for quite the wait and potentially limited options!\nIn either case, time is at a premium which would likely lead to the cost being increased on the meal!\nThe reliever: Cook uses some pre-made items to jump-start their dishes.\nYou don\u0026rsquo;t have to cook a chicken first if all you need is chicken broth. As a cook, you can have containers of broth for use. If you knew your list of meals up-front, you\u0026rsquo;d be able to deconstruct those meals into their underlying parts that can be jump-started by using other products or not starting from scratch to save you time.\nIn this case, your pantry is your Service Catalog where you go to get the pieces to make your meal. Let\u0026rsquo;s hope you\u0026rsquo;re not in the restaurant kitchen peddling microwave dinners though …\nAWS and AWS Service Catalog #AWS has 168 services that you can use. As a cook using AWS as your kitchen, you\u0026rsquo;re probably not going to want to prepare to use each service from scratch every time. That\u0026rsquo;s where recipes come in, or AWS CloudFormation Stacks.\nAWS CloudFormation Stacks are the ingredients-list and recipe steps all in one for combining AWS services into a tasty treat for customers.\nSo, where\u0026rsquo;s AWS Service Catalog come in if AWS CloudFormation Stacks handle all that? Well, it\u0026rsquo;s when you have a lot of similar services or many of them.\nImagine you needed to have 254 Static-hosted websites or 126 projects in need of build and deploy pipelines. Oh, and eventually, you needed to change how both of those are made which dominoes into sharing those changes with how many engineers for them to interpret and follow? Well, it\u0026rsquo;s going to be a bumpy ride keeping that all in the same direction, but that\u0026rsquo;s where AWS Service Catalog comes in.\nAWS Service Catalog #It\u0026rsquo;s the menu for AWS Services, that you can define and centralize your operations on.\nFeatures #Portfolios, or the menu, are just that, a collection of things that can be made. They can be defined as AWS CloudFormation templates.\nProducts, or the dishes that can be ordered, are on the menu (Portfolio), and are made to order.\nVersioning, is how products change over time. They may read the same on the menu, but some ingredients may change over time.\nCost to use #AWS Service Catalog pricing is per-API call, which can make estimating cost possible with some napkin math, but ultimately cheaper for most use-cases. Most calculated monthly examples end up being less than $0.50 per month.\nIf you\u0026rsquo;re looking to try things out, there is 1000 API calls included in the AWS \u0026ldquo;always free\u0026rdquo; tier monthly.\nWays to setup # Via the AWS Console Via AWS CLI Via AWS CloudFormation Next post #In a follow-up post, I\u0026rsquo;ll include a walkthrough setting up AWS Service Catalog from scratch. From Portfolio to Products with multiple versions and ultimately using AWS CodePipeline to deploy AWS CloudFormation templates as Products to the Portfolio for others to use!\n","date":"September 22, 2020","permalink":"/posts/aws-service-catalog-concept-introduction/","section":"Posts","summary":"\u003cp\u003eSo, what\u0026rsquo;s this Service Catalog thing? Well, let\u0026rsquo;s visit that before we get into the technical details.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"example-restaurants-and-made-to-order-meals\" class=\"relative group\"\u003eExample: Restaurants and made to order meals \u003cspan class=\"absolute top-0 w-6 transition-opacity opacity-0 -start-6 not-prose group-hover:opacity-100\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"group-hover:text-primary-300 dark:group-hover:text-neutral-700\" style=\"text-decoration-line: none !important;\" href=\"#example-restaurants-and-made-to-order-meals\" aria-label=\"Anchor\"\u003e#\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eEver used a menu at a restaurant? Then, you\u0026rsquo;ve used a Service Catalog, conceptually, before!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRestaurants have a generalized workflow.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003col\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eCustomers are seated\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWait-staff takes customers\u0026rsquo; order\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWait-staff passes customer order to the Kitchen-staff\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKitchen-staff prioritizes and cooks orders\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eKitchen-staff hands-off customer cooked meal to wait-staff\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003eWait-staff delivers the order to the customer\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ol\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this generalized workflow, we have both an internal and external use-case for a \u0026ldquo;Service Catalog\u0026rdquo; for the business.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"AWS Service Catalog - Concept Introduction"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/concepts/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Concepts"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/introduction/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Introduction"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/service-catalog/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Service-Catalog"},{"content":"AWS CDK enables you to codify infrastructure within a variety of programming languages to build reusable constructs that generate large amounts of AWS CloudFormation. The ratio of effort input vs value output is astounding.\nIn this repository is a public learning effort gradually ramping up toward full SDLC of an application backed by AWS ElasticBeanstalk.\nExamples #01 - Creating an Application #AWS Elastic Beanstalk has a concept of an Application that houses multiple environments. Here, we create that Application.\n02 - Creating an Environment #Next, let\u0026rsquo;s create an AWS ElasticBeanstalk Application again, then create a single Environment running Java 8.\n03 - Environment Using Spot Instances #Let\u0026rsquo;s be cost-conscious and create our Environments utilizing AWS EC2 Spot Instances through the native support via AWS ElasticBeanstalk!\n04 - Multiple Environments #We have our Application and Environment in place, but what\u0026rsquo;s it look like to create multiple Environments? Do we have to copy/paste code, or can we make it reusable?\n🚨 Spoiler alert: we can make a parameterized stack and instantiate multiple! 🚨\n05 - Pipeline to Single Environment #Up to here, we have an Application with multiple Environments, but we want to be able to ship new changes to these environments. So, let\u0026rsquo;s take a step back to a single Environment, add in AWS CodeBuild and AWS CodePipeline, and deploy a built application to the Environment!\nCode #All examples available at: github.com/bluegrass-dev/aws-cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples\n","date":"July 17, 2020","permalink":"/posts/aws-cdk-elastic-beanstalk-examples/","section":"Posts","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://aws.amazon.com/cdk/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\"\u003eAWS CDK\u003c/a\u003e enables you to codify infrastructure within a variety of programming languages to build reusable constructs that generate large amounts of AWS CloudFormation. The ratio of effort input vs value output is astounding.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn this repository is a public learning effort gradually ramping up toward full SDLC of an application backed by AWS ElasticBeanstalk.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"examples\" class=\"relative group\"\u003eExamples \u003cspan class=\"absolute top-0 w-6 transition-opacity opacity-0 -start-6 not-prose group-hover:opacity-100\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"group-hover:text-primary-300 dark:group-hover:text-neutral-700\" style=\"text-decoration-line: none !important;\" href=\"#examples\" aria-label=\"Anchor\"\u003e#\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\u003ch3 id=\"01---creating-an-application\" class=\"relative group\"\u003e01 - Creating an Application \u003cspan class=\"absolute top-0 w-6 transition-opacity opacity-0 -start-6 not-prose group-hover:opacity-100\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"group-hover:text-primary-300 dark:group-hover:text-neutral-700\" style=\"text-decoration-line: none !important;\" href=\"#01---creating-an-application\" aria-label=\"Anchor\"\u003e#\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eAWS Elastic Beanstalk has a concept of an Application that houses multiple environments. Here, we create that Application.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"AWS CDK Elastic Beanstalk Examples"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/aws-cdk/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Aws-Cdk"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/aws-cdk-pipelines/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Aws-Cdk-Pipelines"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/elastic-beanstalk/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Elastic-Beanstalk"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/projects/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Projects"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/eks/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Eks"},{"content":"From AWS Elastic Beanstalk to AWS EKS #Links # Presentation slides Presentation code Meetup Details: Kubernetes-and-Cloud-Native-Computing-Louisville Overview #What could it look like to experiment with an existing application running on AWS ElasticBeanstalk over to AWS EKS using modern tools?\nIn this talk and the code, we\u0026rsquo;re re-using the AWS Sample eb-java-scorekeep application. From there, we deploy to AWS ElasticBeanstalk Java Platform.\nWanting to begin our explorations, we shift the application to AWS ElasticBeanstalk Docker Platform.\nNext, we start looking at AWS CDK for using imperative code to help us do more with less code to deploy an AWS ECS Cluster with AWS Fargate Services.\nLastly, we land at AWS EKS with a cluster created via AWS CDK, our application packaged and deployed to our cluster via AWS CDK.\nTalk outline # Scenario Our goal Overview of the tools involved Our baseline infrastructure: AWS ElasticBeanstalk Java via AWS CloudFormation Experiment 1: AWS ElasticBeanstalk Docker via AWS CloudFormation Experiment 2: AWS ECS Fargate via AWS CDK Experiment 3: AWS EKS via AWS CDK Experiment 3+1: AWS EKS resources via AWS CDK8s Questions? ","date":"May 17, 2020","permalink":"/posts/from-aws-elastic-beanstalk-to-eks/","section":"Posts","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"from-aws-elastic-beanstalk-to-aws-eks\" class=\"relative group\"\u003eFrom AWS Elastic Beanstalk to AWS EKS \u003cspan class=\"absolute top-0 w-6 transition-opacity opacity-0 -start-6 not-prose group-hover:opacity-100\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"group-hover:text-primary-300 dark:group-hover:text-neutral-700\" style=\"text-decoration-line: none !important;\" href=\"#from-aws-elastic-beanstalk-to-aws-eks\" aria-label=\"Anchor\"\u003e#\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\u003ch3 id=\"links\" class=\"relative group\"\u003eLinks \u003cspan class=\"absolute top-0 w-6 transition-opacity opacity-0 -start-6 not-prose group-hover:opacity-100\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"group-hover:text-primary-300 dark:group-hover:text-neutral-700\" style=\"text-decoration-line: none !important;\" href=\"#links\" aria-label=\"Anchor\"\u003e#\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/e/2PACX-1vQiB6MIp963hZStyGmcUDXA_KxoDy3NnV_LAO0kbQBbFEsYbjJEqAK4mrPQT32ZrMKjbGzVWZ8xaHdT/pub?start=false\u0026amp;loop=false\u0026amp;delayms=3000\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\"\u003ePresentation slides\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://github.com/bluegrass-dev/talk-from-elasticbeanstalk-to-eks\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\"\u003ePresentation code\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\u003ca href=\"https://www.meetup.com/Kubernetes-and-Cloud-Native-Computing-Louisville/events/cdrwlrybchbkb/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\"\u003eMeetup Details: Kubernetes-and-Cloud-Native-Computing-Louisville\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/li\u003e\n\u003c/ul\u003e\n\u003ch3 id=\"overview\" class=\"relative group\"\u003eOverview \u003cspan class=\"absolute top-0 w-6 transition-opacity opacity-0 -start-6 not-prose group-hover:opacity-100\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"group-hover:text-primary-300 dark:group-hover:text-neutral-700\" style=\"text-decoration-line: none !important;\" href=\"#overview\" aria-label=\"Anchor\"\u003e#\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhat could it look like to experiment with an existing application running on AWS ElasticBeanstalk over to AWS EKS using modern tools?\u003c/p\u003e","title":"From AWS Elastic Beanstalk to AWS EKS"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/louisville/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Louisville"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/meetups/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Meetups"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/talks/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Talks"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/branding/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Branding"},{"content":"Howdy #Personal branding isn\u0026rsquo;t something I\u0026rsquo;ve thought much about in the past. I\u0026rsquo;m one that believes consistent actions speak for themselves. But with an upcoming commitment to speak at, it dawned on me that I have no consolidated place for folks to go!\nThrowing spaghetti at the wall #Some call this generating a \u0026ldquo;word cloud\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;mind mapping\u0026rdquo; to organically generate a consolidated idea from throwing words out there and connecting them to see what can stick.\nGoal Document what I do and share with others for ease of access and cross-referencing Package it all up in an authentic way About me Jovial Self-driven Coffee for days Lives in Kentucky Writes most, if not all emails with \u0026ldquo;Howdy,\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;Howdy, folks -,\u0026rdquo; \u0026ldquo;Cheers,\u0026rdquo; salutations About what I do Software Engineering Develops in whatever languages or tools that best fit the problem Critical thinking Self-teaching when I don\u0026rsquo;t know something Boiling your noodle #After my ~30 minute exercise, I boiled down what my noodle came up with some word association.\nKentucky → The Bluegrass State → Motto: \u0026ldquo;Unbridled Spirit\u0026rdquo; Software Engineering → dev → .dev → a Generic Top Level Domain that exists Language/tool agnostic → multiple \u0026ldquo;fields\u0026rdquo; of study My Generated motto: \u0026ldquo;An unbridled spirit that gallops around the open fields of software.\u0026rdquo;\nOff to Namecheap.com, I went searching. Where I landed:\nbluegrass.dev\nSo brief, but it seems like it articulates where and what enough to click to find out more.\nPlating my dish #Goal: Github Pages, update via commit a minimal content focused website.\nFollowing through the steps for establishing a Custom Domain for a Github Pages site, I had this wired up in the basic form in about 20 minutes!\nCan we eat now #Here\u0026rsquo;s where you can see everything in action!\nGithub Repo: https://github.com/bluegrass-dev/blog Website: https://blog.bluegrass.dev ","date":"May 7, 2020","permalink":"/posts/developing-my-personal-brand/","section":"Posts","summary":"\u003ch2 id=\"howdy\" class=\"relative group\"\u003eHowdy \u003cspan class=\"absolute top-0 w-6 transition-opacity opacity-0 -start-6 not-prose group-hover:opacity-100\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"group-hover:text-primary-300 dark:group-hover:text-neutral-700\" style=\"text-decoration-line: none !important;\" href=\"#howdy\" aria-label=\"Anchor\"\u003e#\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003ePersonal branding isn\u0026rsquo;t something I\u0026rsquo;ve thought much about in the past. I\u0026rsquo;m one that believes consistent actions speak for themselves. But with an upcoming commitment to speak at, it dawned on me that I have no consolidated place for folks to go!\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"throwing-spaghetti-at-the-wall\" class=\"relative group\"\u003eThrowing spaghetti at the wall \u003cspan class=\"absolute top-0 w-6 transition-opacity opacity-0 -start-6 not-prose group-hover:opacity-100\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"group-hover:text-primary-300 dark:group-hover:text-neutral-700\" style=\"text-decoration-line: none !important;\" href=\"#throwing-spaghetti-at-the-wall\" aria-label=\"Anchor\"\u003e#\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eSome call this generating a \u0026ldquo;word cloud\u0026rdquo; or \u0026ldquo;mind mapping\u0026rdquo; to organically generate a consolidated idea from throwing words out there and connecting them to see what can stick.\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Cooking my brand like homemade spaghetti"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/learning/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Learning"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/adventure/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Adventure"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/tags/culture/","section":"Tags","summary":"","title":"Culture"},{"content":"Original post on Medium brought here for posterity. I\u0026rsquo;ve since moved to another company, and the DevBookClub started grew into a Louisville meetup - Dev Book Club by a fellow organizer.\n\u0026ldquo;Don\u0026rsquo;t judge each day by the harvest your reap but by the seeds that you plant.\u0026rdquo; — Robert Louis Stevenson\nThe idea that created a hunger to explore #I have always been plagued with a curious mind, but it wasn\u0026rsquo;t until some time ago that I developed an interest in trying to share in that curiosity with others. I attribute that to the perspective gained by mentoring for an organization teaching others involving my given craft (CodeLouisville).\nWhat started with a giddy Facebook post by a nerd about some books led into sidebar discussions among peers revealing an opportunity. An opportunity to create a community around learning with others. Quite the contrast from what many of us were accustomed to; learning in silos as individuals.\nTaking inventory for the voyage #The initial chatter with my peers showed a variable amount of interest in certain areas, but we all seemed to agree on one thing; start simple.\nStart Simple Keep a history Set a cadence and a point of centralized updates Direct the group toward the end destination Mind you; these conversations spanned only a day online, it was the next day that I put our infrastructure into place and we were dipping our toes into the water to check the temperature. I was scared of losing fleeting interest in the adventure, so acting quick was a must.\nPausing story time here for now #After churning on this post for an hour, I need to get back to the grind on some code for other projects. However, I fully intend to continue. Sheesh, starting this I was all \u0026ldquo;This is going to be dreadful\u0026rdquo; however this has been quite an enjoyable outlet thus far. More to come!\n","date":"July 16, 2016","permalink":"/posts/planting-seeds-for-a-culture-of-learning/","section":"Posts","summary":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eOriginal post on Medium brought here for posterity. I\u0026rsquo;ve since moved to another company, and the DevBookClub started grew into a Louisville meetup - Dev Book Club by a fellow organizer.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cblockquote\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u0026ldquo;Don\u0026rsquo;t judge each day by the harvest your reap but by the seeds that you plant.\u0026rdquo; — Robert Louis Stevenson\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003c/blockquote\u003e\n\u003ch2 id=\"the-idea-that-created-a-hunger-to-explore\" class=\"relative group\"\u003eThe idea that created a hunger to explore \u003cspan class=\"absolute top-0 w-6 transition-opacity opacity-0 -start-6 not-prose group-hover:opacity-100\"\u003e\u003ca class=\"group-hover:text-primary-300 dark:group-hover:text-neutral-700\" style=\"text-decoration-line: none !important;\" href=\"#the-idea-that-created-a-hunger-to-explore\" aria-label=\"Anchor\"\u003e#\u003c/a\u003e\u003c/span\u003e\u003c/h2\u003e\u003cp\u003eI have always been plagued with a curious mind, but it wasn\u0026rsquo;t until some time ago that I developed an interest in trying to share in that curiosity with others. I attribute that to the perspective gained by mentoring for an organization teaching others involving my given craft (CodeLouisville).\u003c/p\u003e","title":"Planting seeds for a culture of learning - starting DevBookClub"},{"content":"I\u0026rsquo;m CJ [LinkedIn], a simple fella who enjoys technology and helping people.\nToday, I do that by supporting the development of certification exams for Amazon Web Services. With 15-plus years in the IT industry, I\u0026rsquo;ve worked at small and large companies, optimized workflows, built solutions, mentored up-and-coming talent, and helped senior leaders.\nNow I\u0026rsquo;m exploring what it looks like to share written content online.\nDisclaimer: These articles and opinions are my own and not those of my employers.\n","date":"January 1, 1","permalink":"/about/","section":"Howdy World","summary":"\u003cp\u003eI\u0026rsquo;m CJ [\u003ca href=\"https://www.linkedin.com/in/cj-taylor/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer\"\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eLinkedIn\u003c/strong\u003e\u003c/a\u003e], a simple fella who enjoys technology and helping people.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eToday, I do that by supporting the development of certification exams for Amazon Web Services. With 15-plus years in the IT industry, I\u0026rsquo;ve worked at small and large companies, optimized workflows, built solutions, mentored up-and-coming talent, and helped senior leaders.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNow I\u0026rsquo;m exploring what it looks like to share written content online.\u003c/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eDisclaimer: These articles and opinions are my own and not those of my employers.\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/p\u003e","title":"About"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/categories/","section":"Categories","summary":"","title":"Categories"},{"content":"","date":null,"permalink":"/series/","section":"Series","summary":"","title":"Series"}]