Testing, Testing...Testing 1, 2, 3 (Justin)

As some of you may know, there are four AmeriCorps volunteers working at Island Coffeehouse and Books: Lissa, Molly, Caitlin, and myself. We all have specialized coffeehouse jobs in addition to general barista duties; my area is the vaguely defined task of "marketing."

Now, in school I wasn't a marketing major or any practical major at all, in fact. Instead, I studied English literature and Economics. Neither is exactly known for keeping its students grounded, for learning and acting in the job market, for developing projects and implementing them. You can go to Paul Krugman's blog for an authoritative (biased? politically motivated? accurate?) pontification on the extent to which economics has deviated from real world study and application.

I suppose it sounds like I'm explaining every reason why I'm not qualified for this position, but that's not it exactly. What I really mean to communicate is my excitement to get away from theorizing and reading and do some actual, honest, measurable work. In school, I noticed a strong and puzzling relationship between study hours and spontaneous sleepiness. Now, I find myself waking up when it comes time to work (is that because I work at a coffeehouse and thus drink about 7 shots of espresso a day?...nah) and thinking about ideas even when I'm off-duty, and one of those ideas was this very blog you are looking at.

Why a blog, you might wonder? Because everyone likes a good blog. Everyone also dislikes a bad blog, so I'll try to avoid the mindset that every thought I have is worthy of being communicated to the world; I know I find that annoying, and I imagine you do, too. Here is the purpose for this blog, as I see it: first and foremost, to entertain. I'm thinking an "overheard at the coffeehouse" section, videos/commercials that the kids will work up, maybe a series of videos on drink innovations, and a list of what I and other AmeriCorps and community volunteers are reading, listening to, and watching. Also, I see it as an excellent means of communicating to the public some of the plans ICB and the South Whidbey Commons (Susie and Rosie in particular, the Board of Directors, and AmeriCorps volunteers as well) have for the coming months. Because comments will be enabled and welcomed, it will be a great way for community members to discuss some of these things and share their own stories and ideas. So there you have it. Enjoy.